St. Thomas to St. Croix: ferry, seaplane or a flight
The fastest way from St. Thomas to St. Croix is the seaplane: twenty-five minutes from the Charlotte Amalie waterfront to Christiansted harbor, with flights through the day. The ferry leaves from the same waterfront and is the slow, cheaper way, one boat each afternoon across two hours of open sea with nothing back until the next morning, so it makes a night on St. Croix rather than a day. The third option is a short scheduled flight between the two airports, which adds a taxi at each end.
Written by Virgin Islands VillasUpdated Oct 2026
Ferry, seaplane or flight from St. Thomas to St. Croix
Three ways cross the forty-odd miles of sea between the islands, and they suit different trips: the seaplane for a day on St. Croix, the ferry for a night there on a budget or with luggage, the airport flight for anyone already at Cyril E. King Airport.
| Option | Operator | Time | Fare | Leaves St. Thomas from | Runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ferry | QE4 Ferry | 2 h 10 min | $85 one way, per person | Blyden terminal, Charlotte Amalie waterfront | 3 pm, Wednesday to Monday |
| Seaplane | Seaborne Airlines | 25 min | Priced by date when you book | Blair seaplane terminal, next to the Blyden terminal | More than 20 flights a day |
| Flight | Cape Air, Fly the Whale | About 45 miles; the airline shows the time | From $109 one way on Cape Air, November 2026 dates | Cyril E. King Airport (STT) | Daily |
From the operators' own pages and the Virgin Islands Port Authority's schedule and airline lists, all checked October 22, 2026; where an operator and the Port Authority disagree, the table prints the operator.
The QE4 ferry from the Charlotte Amalie waterfront to Gallows Bay
QE4 Ferry sails once a day in each direction, Wednesday to Monday, per its own site as of October 2026: 8 am from Gallows Bay in Christiansted, into the Edward Wilmoth Blyden IV Marine Terminal on the Charlotte Amalie waterfront at 10:10 am, then 3 pm back out, alongside at Gallows Bay at 5:10 pm, and no boat on Tuesday. The Port Authority's schedule page lists the same times but Thursday to Monday; the operator's booking calendar carries Wednesday, so check it for your date before you build a night around the boat.
Book through the booking link on the operator's site or on (340) 473-1322, weekdays 9 am to 5 pm. Arrive 30 minutes before sailing; check-in closes 15 minutes before, and the boat does not wait. The Coast Guard requires a government photo ID or birth papers for every passenger, children included, and anyone 17 or under travels with an adult; the sailing is domestic, so the ID rules are a flight's. The Blyden terminal is the Port Authority's ferry hall at the west end of the waterfront, with ticket booths, an open-air waiting room and a taxi stand outside. Coming the other way, the 8 am boat lands you in downtown Charlotte Amalie before half past ten with the day ahead.
What the St. Croix ferry costs, bags and cancellations included
$85 a seat one way, in either direction, per person, on QE4 Ferry's booking page as of October 2026, with no round-trip discount there; its older services page still shows $70 and a $60 round trip, and the Port Authority's page $60, but the booking page is the price you pay.
| Item | QE4 Ferry, as of October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Adult, one way | $85 |
| Child under two | $30 on the Port Authority's page; the operator's site lists no child fare |
| One small carry-on | Free |
| Each additional bag, up to two | $15 |
| Excess bag | $25 |
| Overweight, over 50 lb | $1 a pound, $10 minimum, paid at check-in |
| Surfboard, bicycle, television | From $35 each |
| Change or cancel | Up to one hour before departure, from the confirmation email |
| No-show or same-day cancellation | Not refunded |
| Canceled for weather | The next available boat or a credit valid for a year, or a refund less 15 percent |
| Canceled by the operator for another reason | Full refund |
Two adults with a checked bag each pay $200 to cross and $200 back. Against the seaplane the difference is not the fare alone: the ferry's limit is per bag and the seaplane's is per aircraft, so a family with luggage crosses more cheaply and more surely by sea.
The seaplane from Charlotte Amalie to Christiansted harbor
Seaborne Airlines flies from the Charles F. Blair Jr. Seaplane Terminal, the Port Authority's ramp next door to the Blyden terminal on Veterans Drive, to the seaplane base on Christiansted harbor; its own page as of October 2026 calls the flight 25 minutes downtown to downtown, with more than 20 flights a day. It is the only way to cross and step off in the middle of the other town. Seaborne publishes no fare table and no fixed timetable; its booking engine prices each flight by date, so the time and the price are the ones on your screen.
The rules are an aircraft's. Be at the base no less than 45 minutes before departure; the flight closes 30 minutes before. Nothing goes in the cabin but what you can hold in your hands: a personal item up to 20 pounds and a carry-on up to 30 pounds ride in containers in the hold, anything heavier is charged as checked baggage, and the first checked bag, 50 pounds at most, is $30 under the policy Seaborne changed on September 8, 2026. Weight and balance decide the last seats, and a late check-in with heavy bags can be bumped to the next flight, rebooked at no charge.
Flights from St. Thomas to St. Croix, airport to airport
Cape Air and Fly the Whale fly scheduled between Cyril E. King Airport (STT) and Henry E. Rohlsen Airport (STX) every day, per the Virgin Islands Port Authority's airline list as of October 2026, and Sea Flight VI is listed on demand. Cape Air's booking site showed fares from $109 one way for late October and November 2026 dates on October 22, 2026, a snapshot it says may be gone by the time you book; Fly the Whale calls its service year-round, several flights a day, and quotes at booking. The airports are about 45 miles apart by our computation, and the airline prints the scheduled time when you search your dates; we do not print one.
The catch is the ground. The St. Thomas airport is 12 minutes from the waterfront and Henry E. Rohlsen Airport sits outside Christiansted, so a flight that beats the seaplane in the air loses to it door to door, and the fare includes neither taxi. It suits a traveler who lands at Cyril E. King and goes straight on, or bags the seaplane will not take. Which airlines fly into St. Thomas, and on which days, is on flights to St. Thomas.
Reaching the Blyden terminal from the airport, Red Hook and the piers
The ferry and the seaplane leave from the same few yards of waterfront, so one set of legs serves both. We measured the drives on the island's roads; the fares are per person on the Virgin Islands Taxicab Commission's tariff in force since October 24, 2022, which prices the terminal as Charlotte Amalie.
| From | Minutes by road | Taxi, one rider | Taxi, each of 2 or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cyril E. King Airport | 12 | $11 | $9 |
| Havensight cruise dock | 12 | $6 | $6 |
| Crown Bay cruise pier | 9 | $8 | $6 |
| Red Hook ferry terminal | 28 | $20 | $15 |
| Sapphire Bay, East End | 24 | $21 | $15 |
| Cabrita Point and the Ritz-Carlton, East End | 29 | $23 | $15 |
The airport, pier and Red Hook rows are measured to the terminal door (September 16, October 9 and October 22, 2026); the East End rows run from the middle of each neighborhood to the middle of Charlotte Amalie (September 15, 2026), a few minutes short of the terminal. Bags are $3 each, St. Thomas taxis has the rest of the card, and the Port Authority lists ATS Taxi Service on 340-777-8007 at the terminal; from a ship it is the same 12 minutes from the Havensight dock. Driving yourself, the terminal's meters allow two hours between 6 am and 6 pm and nothing overnight, per the Port Authority as of October 2026; a rental sleeping on St. Thomas goes to the airport garage, $20 for up to 24 hours. For the 3 pm boat, leave the East End by 2 pm, earlier on a cruise-ship day.
A day on St. Croix from a St. Thomas villa, honestly
By ferry there is no day trip from St. Thomas. The timetable is built the other way round, for Crucians spending a day in Charlotte Amalie: the boat leaves St. Croix at 8 am and St. Thomas at 3 pm, so a St. Thomas guest sails at three, lands at ten past five, and the first boat home is 8 am the next morning, in by 10:10. That is an overnight, and at $85 a seat the inexpensive way to see the third island; book a bed in Christiansted and cross on any day but Tuesday, remembering that a Monday boat out has no Tuesday boat back.
The day trip is the seaplane, both ways: a morning flight from the waterfront, the day in Christiansted, an afternoon flight home, with 45 minutes at the base before each and your bags light. Mixing the two works one way only: ferry over at 3 pm and seaplane back the next day is a good overnight; seaplane over in the morning and ferry back the same day does not exist, because the ferry leaves St. Croix at 8 am. What a villa guest crosses for is the Danish streets of Christiansted and Frederiksted, the Cruzan distillery and the reef at Buck Island; St. Croix is its own trip, and this page plans the crossing, not the island.
Seasickness, weather and the Tuesday with no boat
The tradeoff: the St. Croix ferry is not the St. John ferry. It is two hours and ten minutes across about 44 miles of open Caribbean with the trade-wind swell on the beam, and by our read the roughest scheduled crossing a visitor to the US Virgin Islands can take; anyone who felt the twenty minutes to Cruz Bay should take whatever works for them an hour before boarding and keep the horizon in view. QE4 Ferry's own terms say weather can slow the boat or cancel it, with the next departure, a year's credit or a refund less 15 percent when it does, so in the windier winter weeks and when a system passes in late summer the 3 pm boat is a plan to hold loosely.
The seaplane has its own weather and its own ceiling on weight, and Tuesday has no boat at all. For a villa week that cannot bend, cross by seaplane with a carry-on, or give St. Croix a night and come back on the morning boat with the day in hand. Every other boat in the territory, with its last departure, is on the ferries page.
How do you get from St. Thomas to St. Croix?
By seaplane from the Charlotte Amalie waterfront, 25 minutes to Christiansted harbor on Seaborne Airlines; by QE4 Ferry from the Blyden terminal on the same waterfront, 3 pm Wednesday to Monday, 2 hours 10 minutes to Gallows Bay, $85 a person one way; or by Cape Air or Fly the Whale between the two airports, daily, per the operators' own pages and the Virgin Islands Port Authority as of October 2026.
How long is the ferry from St. Thomas to St. Croix?
Two hours and ten minutes on the timetable: 3 pm out of Charlotte Amalie, 5:10 pm at Gallows Bay, and 8 am to 10:10 am coming back, per QE4 Ferry as of October 2026; the operator calls it a two-hour ride. The seaplane crosses in 25 minutes.
How much is the ferry from St. Thomas to St. Croix?
$85 per person one way on QE4 Ferry's booking page as of October 2026, one small carry-on free and $15 a bag after that, up to two. Its services page still shows $70 and the Port Authority's page $60; the booking page is the one that charges you. There is no return discount, so a round trip is $170.
Is there a seaplane from St. Thomas to St. Croix?
Yes. Seaborne Airlines flies from the Charles F. Blair Jr. Seaplane Terminal, next door to the Blyden ferry terminal in Charlotte Amalie, to Christiansted harbor: 25 minutes, more than 20 flights a day, per its own page as of October 2026. Be at the base 45 minutes before, carry only what you can hold, and expect the fare to be priced by date when you book.
Can you get from St. John to St. Croix?
Not directly; nothing sails or flies from St. John to St. Croix. Take the 8:45 or 11:15 am boat from Cruz Bay to Charlotte Amalie, 45 minutes and $13, which lands at the Blyden terminal where the 3 pm St. Croix ferry and the seaplane leave, or the Red Hook ferry and a 28-minute taxi across St. Thomas. Coming back, the 8 am boat from St. Croix is in at 10:10 am for the 12:30 pm boat downtown to Cruz Bay, on Transportation Services of St. John's timetable as of October 2026.
How far is St. Croix from St. Thomas?
About 44 miles of open sea from the Charlotte Amalie waterfront to Gallows Bay in Christiansted, and about 45 miles between the two airports, by our computation from their coordinates. St. Croix lies south across the Caribbean, which is why the crossing is a 25-minute seaplane or a two-hour boat rather than the 20-minute hop to St. John.
Villas on St. Thomas
Every villa on the island is listed by its owner on St. Thomas vacation rentals. See rates and dates, then write to the owner.
- St. Thomas weather by month
- Things to do in St. Thomas
- Flights to St. Thomas: who flies nonstop, and when
- How to get around St. Thomas
- Margaritaville St. Thomas or a villa?
- St. Thomas airport: Cyril E. King (STT)
Facts checked against QE4 Ferry, the Virgin Islands Port Authority, Seaborne Airlines, Cape Air and Fly the Whale. Checked October 2026.